An integrated UMASS Amherst team led by Dr. Andy Danylchuk and including Dr. James Webb, Dr. David Damery (Dept. of Environmental Conservation (ECO)) and Dr. Craig Hollingsworth (U Mass Extension) have just completed two groundbreaking workshops in Sustainable Rural Technologies in the Ugandan capitol city of Kampala. These workshops are ultimately being used to guide the curriculum of a new university in the Teso region.

On Wednesday, Dr. David Damery, Director of the Building and Construction Technology program within ECO led the first workshop on “Green Construction in Uganda”. The workshop was attended by architects, engineers, academics, and Government Ministry officials from across the capitol city. The workshop revealed that topics such as adaptive reuse and embodied energy are not foreign terms within the building construction industry in Uganda, and that there is considerable desire to use alternative construction techniques to increase the sustainability of the build environment throughout the region.

Dr. Andy Danylchuk, Asst. Professor of Fish Conservation within ECO next directed the entire team for two days of workshops entitled “Pathways for Aquaculture in Uganda”. Practitioners, academics, and consultants from across the country participated in discussion, demonstrations, and strategic planning for future aquaculture development in this East Central African nation. The workshop took an integrative systems thinking approach to help identify challenges and opportunities to the aquaculture industry in Uganda. All participants were encouraged by the collective sharing of information as well as the potential role the new university in the Teso region will play in helping the aquaculture industry move forward in Uganda.